Works, by Guy de Maupassant

The Man with the Blue Eyes

Monsieur Pierre Agénor de Vargnes, the Examining Magistrate, was the exact opposite of a practical joker. He was
dignity, staidness, correctness personified. As a sedate man, he was quite incapable of being guilty, even in his
dreams, of anything resembling a practical joke, however remotely. I know nobody to whom he could be compared, unless
it be the present president of the French Republic. I think it is useless to carry the analogy any further, and having
said thus much, it will be easily understood that a cold shiver passed through me when Monsieur Pierre Agénor de
Vargnes did me the honor of sending a lady to wait on me.

At about eight o’clock, one morning last winter, as he was leaving the house to go to the Palais de
Justice, his footman handed him a card, on which was printed:

DOCTOR JAMES FERDINAND, Member of the Academy of Medicine, Port-au-Prince, Chevalier of the Legion of
Honor.

At the bottom of the card, there was written in pencil:

From Lady Frogère

Monsieur de Vargnes knew the lady very well, who was a very agreeable Creole from Haiti, and whom he had met in many
drawing-rooms, and, on the other hand, though the doctor’s name did not awaken any recollections in him, his quality
and titles alone required that he should grant him an interview, however short it might be. Therefore, although he was
in a hurry to get out, Monsieur de Vargnes told the footman to show in his early visitor, but to tell him beforehand
that his master was much pressed for time, as he had to go to the Law Courts.

When the doctor came in, in spite of his usual imperturbability, he could not restrain a movement of surprise, for
the doctor presented that strange anomaly of being a negro of the purest, blackest type, with the eyes of a white man,
of a man from the North, pale, cold, clear, blue eyes, and his surprise increased when, after a few words of excuse for
his untimely visit, he added, with an enigmatical smile:

“My eyes surprise you, do they not? I was sure that they would, and, to tell you the truth, I came here in order
that you might look at them well, and never forget them.”

His smile, and his words, even more than his smile, seemed to be those of a madman. He spoke very softly, with that
childish, lisping voice, which is peculiar to negroes, and his mysterious, almost menacing words, consequently, sounded
all the more as if they were uttered at random by a man bereft of his reason. But his looks, the looks of those pale,
cold, clear, blue eyes, were certainly not those of a madman. They clearly expressed menace, yes, menace, as well as
irony, and, above all, implacable ferocity, and their glance was like a flash of lightning, which one could never
forget.

“I have seen,” Monsieur de Vargnes used to say, when speaking about it, “the looks of many murderers, but in none of
them have I ever observed such a depth of crime, and of impudent security in crime.”

And this impression was so strong, that Monsieur de Vargnes thought that he was the sport of some hallucination,
especially as when he spoke about his eyes, the doctor continued with a smile, and in his most childish accents: “Of
course, Monsieur, you cannot understand what I am saying to you, and I must beg your pardon for it. To-morrow, you will
receive a letter which will explain it at all to you, but, first all, it was necessary that I should let you have a
good, a careful look at my eyes, my eyes which are myself, my only and true self, as you will see.”

With these words, and with a polite bow, the doctor went out, leaving Monsieur de Vargnes extremely surprised, and a
prey to this doubt, as he said to himself:

“Is he merely a madman? The fierce expression, and the criminal depths of his looks are perhaps caused merely by the
extraordinary contrast between his fierce looks and his pale eyes.”

And absorbed in these thoughts, Monsieur de Vargnes unfortunately allowed several minutes to elapse, and then he
thought to himself suddenly:

“No, I am not the sport of any hallucination, and this is no case of an optical phenomenon. This man is evidently
some terrible criminal, and I have altogether failed in my duty in not arresting him myself at once, illegally, even at
the risk of my life.”

The judge ran downstairs in pursuit of the doctor, but it was too late; he had disappeared. In the afternoon, he
called on Madame Frogère, to ask her whether she could tell him anything about the matter. She, however, did not know
the negro doctor in the least, and was even able to assure him that he was a fictitious personage, for, as she was well
acquainted with the upper classes in Haiti, she knew that the Academy of Medicine at Port-au-Prince had no doctor of
that name among its members. As Monsieur de Vargnes persisted, and gave descriptions of the doctor, especially
mentioning his extraordinary eyes, Madame Frogère began to laugh, and said:

“You have certainly had to do with a hoaxer, my dear Monsieur. The eyes which you have described, are certainly
those of a white man, and the individual must have been painted.”

On thinking it over, Monsieur de Vargnes remembered that the doctor had nothing of the negro about him, but his
black skin, his woolly hair and beard, and his way of speaking, which was easily imitated, but nothing of the negro,
not even the characteristic, undulating walk. Perhaps, after all, he was only a practical joker, and during the whole
day, Monsieur de Vargnes took refuge in that view, which rather wounded his dignity as a man of consequence, but which
appeased his scruples as a magistrate.

The next day, he received the promised letter, which was written, as well as addressed, in letters cut out of the
newspapers. It was as follows:

“MONSIEUR, —

“Doctor James Ferdinand does not exist, but the man whose eyes you saw does, and you will certainly recognize his
eyes. This man has committed two crimes, for which he does not feel any remorse, but, as he is a psychologist, he is
afraid of some day yielding to the irresistible temptation of confessing his crimes. You know better than anyone (and
that is your most powerful aid), with what imperious force criminals, especially intellectual ones, feel this
temptation. That great Poet, Edgar Poe, has written masterpieces on this subject, which express the truth exactly, but
he has omitted to mention the last phenomenon, which I will tell you. Yes, I, a criminal, feel a terrible wish
for somebody to know of my crimes, and, when this requirement is satisfied, my secret has been revealed to a confidant,
I shall be tranquil for the future, and be freed from this demon of perversity, which only tempts us once. Well! Now
that is accomplished. You shall have my secret; from the day that you recognize me by my eyes, you will try
and find out what I am guilty of, and how I was guilty, and you will discover it, being a master of your profession,
which, by-the-bye, has procured you the honor of having been chosen by me to bear the weight of this secret, which now
is shared by us, and by us two alone. I say, advisedly, by us two alone. You could not, as a matter of fact,
prove the reality of this secret to anyone, unless I were to confess it, and I defy you to obtain my public confession,
as I have confessed it to you, and without danger to myself.”

Three months later, Monsieur de Vargnes met Monsieur X—— at an evening party and at first sight, and without the
slightest hesitation, he recognized in him those very pale, very cold, and very clear blue eyes, eyes which it was
impossible to forget.

The man himself remained perfect impassive, so that Monsieur de Vargnes was forced to say to himself:

“Probably I am the sport of a hallucination at this moment, or else there are two pairs of eyes that are perfectly
similar, in the world. And what eyes! Can it be possible?”

The magistrate instituted inquiries into his life, and he discovered this, which removed all his doubts.

Five years previously, Monsieur X—— had been a very poor, but very brilliant medical student, who, although he never
took his doctor’s degree, had already made himself remarkable by his microbiological researches.

A young and very rich widow had fallen in love with him and married him. She had one child by her first marriage,
and in the space of six months, first the child and then the mother died of typhoid fever, and thus Monsieur X—— had
inherited a large fortune, in due form, and without any possible dispute. Everybody said that he had attended to the
two patients with the utmost devotion. Now, were these two deaths the two crimes mentioned in his letter?

But then, Monsieur X—— must have poisoned his two victims with the microbes of typhoid fever, which he had
skillfully cultivated in them, so as to make the disease incurable, even by the most devoted care and attention. Why
not?

“Do you believe it?” I asked Monsieur de Vargnes. “Absolutely,” he replied. “And the most terrible thing about it
is, that the villain is right when he defies me to force him to confess his crime publicly for I see no means of
obtaining a confession, none whatever. For a moment, I thought of magnetism, but who could magnetize that man with
those pale, cold, bright eyes? With such eyes, he would force the magnetizer to denounce himself as the culprit.”

And then he said, with a deep sigh:

“Ah! Formerly there was something good about justice!”

And when he saw my inquiring looks, he added in a firm and perfectly convinced voice:

“Formerly, justice had torture at its command.”

“Upon my word,” I replied, with all an author’s unconscious and simple egotism, “it is quite certain that without
the torture, this strange tale would have no conclusion, and that is very unfortunate, as far as regards the story I
intended to make of it.”